A good day to be the birthday girl!

In true birthday queen fashion, she yells to me from her bed this morning instead of getting up and letting me know she's awake.

I go into her room, say "Happy Birthday, Tay!  You're 4 years old today!!"

Now excited to get up, her feet hit the floor, she looks down and says "Oh! I'm bigger!!"

Seriously, love this kid. :)

I had plans to make banana chocolate chip pancakes {our fave!} but since she knew we were going to my parents house in the morning she decided she'd have breakfast there instead.

Whatever you say...you're the birthday girl.

So, after a fun morning at Grandma's with her cousin Holly {who she will also tell you is her best friend :)} we came home and watched her new Strawberry Shortcake movie she had opened when she got up. {she was allowed to open one present in the morning...the rest had to wait for daddy.}

I don't know about you, but I could watch those Strawberry Shortcake movies all day long.  Her and her little Blueberry Muffin/Lemon Meringue/Raspberry LaTorte/Orange Blossom friends are just the cutest! :)

After that it was outside for some playtime with our favorite neighbors...which included her first experience of pouring salt on a slug!  Sorry to anyone who things that's cruel...but they are everywhere at our house right now and they are nas-ty.

Homemade mac 'n cheese with sliced spinach-and-feta-stuffed sausage mixed in for dinner.  So, SO good.  {I used a light Havarti in the mac 'n cheese and it made all the difference...delish!}

And, finally...present time!

I would say she had waited patiently for this all day long, but that would be a lie.  There were at least 3 occasions where there were tears and/or folded arms and furrowed brows and/or "I'm MAD! I wanna OPEN my PRESENTS." and/or me saying "If I hear that attitude one more time I'm putting your presents away and you won't get any of them.  You need to be patient and appreciate that have presents at all.  Some kids don't."  Thankfully that was the end of it, because I'm a firm believer in following-thru...don't threaten unless you plan on doing it...and I really didn't want to take her birthday presents away from her! {and knew I wasn't going to, regardless...but she didn't need to know that...}

After gifts galore, phone calls and thank yous to grandmas and grandpas, and a little paper clean-up duty by yours truly, it was cupcake time!

She put her own candles on her cupcake, waited patiently for us to sing "Happy Birthday" and blew out those 4 candles like a champ!  I thought for sure she'd want to light them again, so I hadn't taken a picture the first time...I just wanted to enjoy it...well, wouldn't ya know it, she didn't want to blow them out again, she just wanted to lick the candles.

At least we have in on video, right?

We heard a knock on the door...our favorite neighbors again with yet another present for Miss Taylor to open!

She was in heaven tonight.

She's super excited about a stack of new books from Uncle Mitch and family.

She alternated between her new Sketchers Twinkle Toes and her {fake} Ugg boots at least 3 times tonight.

She put her birthday money in her new piggy bank.

And she drifted off to sleep with her new baby {complete with 3 outfits handmade by great grandma} and her new Care Bear under her arm, and informed me that she'd like to wear her new cupcake necklace to preschool tomorrow.

She is one seriously blessed little girl.

And seeing her so happy makes this mama's heart practically skip a beat.

I say we do it again tomorrow. :)

♥